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Hacking the Planet

  • Artykuł

Since the Hubble Space Telescope was having so many problems recently, I decided it was my duty to take up some of the slack.  So I got the scope out last night, plugged in the GPS unit and flipped the switch.  The telescope automatically aligns itself, finding the correct level, determining north, accessing the GPS for valuable information, coordinates and accurate date time info.  Except, as anyone of you that actually has one of these fandangle devices, it never works out perfectly.  You still have to adjust the scope.  However, I found it suspicious when the scope tried to align to Arcturus.  It was nearly ten degrees off.  That's a whopping piece of the sky.  And then I remember, Arcturus, yah, the mission, right.

It seems there is a bit of error being introduced into the GPS signal, keeping my scope from looking at the appropriate section of the sky.  They don't want anyone looking at Arcturus.  And I know who those folks are. 

Then it dawned on me, the Hubble must have been slewing toward Arcturus when the breakdown occurred.  They said otherwise, but I know now that it must have really been a software 'problem'.  When I get back to the ship, I'll see if I can determine who's been hacking the planet and shut them down.  I mean, we are out past the Oort cloud now, so what are we afraid of?

Oh, did I forget to tell you about the teleport pads?

But I digress

Comments

  • Anonymous
    August 11, 2004
    Matt,

    i was allways wondering...

    how do they make sure you hit the other side of the teleport pads correctly, when one of the pads is moving close to lightspeed while the other one is moving along with the planet?

    wouldn't it be emberrassing to get out on the other side only to find you're located inside some solid rock or something?

    WM_QUERY
    thomas woelfer
  • Anonymous
    August 11, 2004
    Calculating the position between the pads is not so bad, it just takes a bit of computing power. Getting the velocities right is the real trouble.
  • Anonymous
    August 11, 2004
    Matt,

    WM_THXINFO
    thomas woelfer